This subway arson in South Korea is awful. More than two dozen are reportedly dead, and others possibly trapped. Police have arrested a 46-year-old named Kim Dae-han in the attack. Police have said nothing about a motive.

A Google search for “Kim Dae Han” turned up a site called “Light a candle for Palestine,” on which one Kim Dae Han of Korea “lit a candle” several months ago. I don’t mean to suggest that anyone who sympathizes with Palestine is automatically a terrorist (I do, and I’m not), but the conspiracy theorist in me has to wonder… could this be the same guy, a Korean citizen who converted to Islam, and whose pro-Palestinian, anti-American, Islamist beliefs inspired him to stage a terrorist attack in South Korea, hoping it would be blamed on North Korea and thus would complicate the Great Satan’s Iraq war plans by shifting the focus from Saddam Hussein to Kim Jong-Il?

Eh, probably not. But if there is some connection, you heard it here first on BrendanLoy.com. :)

UPDATE, 11:43 PM: I should also point out that there’s probably a lot of people in Korea named Kim Dae Han. Here’s an article featuring a Kim Dae Han commenting on soccer, and here’s a story mentioning a compulsive gambler named Kim Dae Han.

My mom sends along this photo, courtesy of the new digital camera I bought her for her birthday:

That would be our front sidewalk in Newington, CT, buried in snow. Snow drifts have piled up against the bush on the left, creating a wall of the white stuff that’s higher than our fence posts. Wow! (Click here for the live webcam view.)

I’m not sure what the luminescent turquoise object in the left-middle of the photo is, but I’m guessing it’s a snow shovel or some other reflective object, reflecting the light from the camera flash. I’m also not sure what the pull red glow in the top-center is; maybe one of my parents can explain in a comment. (But, uh, apparently comment posting is “temporarily disabled.” Dammit, HaloScan! Well, I’ll be getting a new comments system soon, when I move my blog over to MoveableType.)

Anyway, nice photo!

UPDATE, 10:26 PM: More great photos from my mom’s camera!

The Reverse Cowgirl, a “porn-blogger” (I think that’s the term) who spoke at Saturday night’s blogosphere event in Chinatown, insulted me earlier this evening.

This is fine by me, in the sense that anything which brings my website 45 hits in 3 1/2 hours is fine by me. (Hey, it’s not an InstaBoost, but it’s still nice.)

However, just to respond on the merits… if I were producing “the next blogging panel with absolutely no budget,” I would ask around beforehand and see if any bloggers who were planning to attend would be willing to donate a set of speakers and the necessary wires to take the audio from inside and make it at least quasi-audible. Donate just for the night, that is. That’s all it would have taken, and I have a feeling somebody would have been more than happy to do it. Hell, I would have brought my measly computer speakers if somebody had asked me, and they would have at least been better than nothing.

As for the allegation that I am a “stink-pot redhead,” my attorney has advised me not to comment at this time.

UPDATE, 9:24 PM: Thanks to Technorati, by way of Reverse Cowgirl, I have found a couple of hitherto undiscovered links to my site: from CrazySaddam.com, from SparkyBloggerLinks, and from blo.gs (well, that last one’s just an alphabetical list).

CruftBox, homepage of Michael Pusateri, who I met at the blog event, also linked to me… but I already knew that. Check out his post, though: he’s got photos from the event, and lots of commentary.

Okay, I gotta go… I’m at Kinko’s wasting money right now, and my bus is leaving in like 10 minutes…

UPDATE, 2/18/03 12:15 AM: Another blogosphere link.

The Newington High School girls basketball team has qualified for the state tournament for the first time since 1999 — when I was a student manager of the team as a high-school senior! The Indians won their eighth game of the season Thursday, beating CCC South conference rival Platt 47-37.

Newington is now 8-11 (6-7 in the conference) with one game left. That final game is scheduled for tomorrow at archrival Southington (10-8, 6-6), weather permitting. A win over Southington would give Newington its best record since 1998, but even with a loss, the Indians would still reach the tournament. (A winning percentage of .400 is needed to qualify.)

Thursday’s win was Newington’s second victory over Platt this year. In the first game, on Newington’s home court Jan. 10, I was there as the Indians won 48-44 in vertime. The second game, on Platt’s home court, was delayed by a snowstorm from its original date of Feb. 7, so Thursday (Feb. 13) was Newington’s big day.

Platt is 4-14 overall, 2-11 in the CCC South.

Newington lost its other two games last week, at Bulkeley on Tuesday and at home versus Bristol Eastern on Friday.

CORRECTION, 2/20/02: The Newington girls last made the state tournament in 2000, my freshman year in college. They were 9-11 in the regular season that year, losing in the first round to Bristol Central, according to veteran New Britain Herald sports reporter Ken Lipshez. In order to finish with its best record since 1998, Newington would need to beat Southington and win its first-round state tournament game.

12 to 18 inches of snow expected. Check the AdollyaCam throughout the day Monday for live views.

UPDATE, 2:03 PM: “Blizzard Daniel is destined to be one of the biggest winter storms ever,” the WFSB homepage declares as of 5:00 PM Eastern time. “Here in Connecticut, the snow came down so hard, Bradley Airport shut down at 12:30. Driving conditions remain extremely dangerous.” Here are some WFSB videos of the blizzard.

Here’s a live radar view:

The Weather Channel says this storm is dumping snow on roughly one-third of the nation’s population. They’re calling it the biggest snowstorm since the Blizzard of ‘96. (WFSB called that one Blizzard Ginger.)

Here’s a photo slide show from WVIT.